Vigil for humane treatment

Brian Myszkowski

Saturday

Jul 13, 2019 at 7:00 PM

Crowds packed Stroudsburg’s Courthouse Square to peacefully protest the treatment of migrants as part of the nationwide “Lights for Liberty: A Vigil to End Human Concentration Camps” on Friday evening.

Hosted locally by activist group Indivisible Poconos, the vigil drew a crowd of approximately 100 people calling for the end of inhumane treatment of detainees throughout the country’s U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention facilities.

Kathy Bullard of Indivisible Poconos led the event by highlighting the fact that while many area residents may be unaware of it, this is an issue this is, in fact, a local problem.

“Pike County is the second largest detention center in the state of Pennsylvania,” Bullard said. “Pike County reserves 220 of their 375 beds for ICE. So just think about that: they don’t need a jail that big, they’re just reserving it for ICE. The average daily population of ICE detainees is 177 people. The average holding time is 100 days. Their 2018 revenue from ICE was $5 million. $5 million.”

While the Juntos study – “Interlocking Systems: How Pennsylvania Counties and Local Police are Assisting ICE to Deport Immigrants” – that Bullard referenced provided data on Pike County Correctional Facility, Monroe County Correctional Facility was not included in the report. The Detention Facility Locator page on the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement website lists four facilities in Pennsylvania: Pike and Clinton Correctional Facilities, York County Prison and Berks Family Residential Center.

Bullard emphasized that the conditions in Pike County Correctional Facility for ICE detainees have been described as remiss, if not outright abusive, and that the candlelight vigil alone would not suffice to change those conditions. Rather, the vigil was simply the beginning of what will be a long campaign to hold local officials accountable for assisting ICE in their mission.

“There are allegations of medical neglect and forced administration of psychotropic drugs,” Bullard said. “This is in our back yard. This is not in D.C., it’s not in Texas, it’s in New Mexico. This is in our back yard. We need to be active. We can not just come out in Courthouse Square. We need to be active.”

Eastern Monroe Public Library director Susan Lyons said that she, amongst many others, had been horrified by the videos, photos, accounts and descriptions of detainment centers across the country and her own backyard, but wondered how to take action.

“Like you, I’ve been watching the images on TV: kids in cages, people being held in squalor without basic needs, and thinking about what I do,” Lyons said. “The first thing is what we’re doing right now: gathering as a community in the town square. We’re one of over 800 vigils that are happening tonight across America.”

Lyons recounted her time working in New Jersey, when she would engage with individuals and groups that came together to support ICE detainees at John F. Kennedy Airport and Newark Liberty International Airport. These groups visited detainees and provided information, books, and other assistance in their time of need.

Lyons said that many such support groups grew out of religious communities: churches, temples, mosques and other establishments came together to offer their help to detainees.

However, due to the relative isolation of Pike County Correctional Facility, establishing such support groups would be rather difficult, Lyons said.

“It’s going to take a little time to build, but it’s very necessary,” Lyons said. “They’ve been holding people in ICE detention in Pike County for years now, and the numbers have grown significantly over the last three years.”

Lyons concluded her speech by inviting the crowd to come together at Hughes Library at 7 p.m. on Thursday, July 18 to further discuss initiatives revolving around support groups for detainees and other options.

Anthony Stevens-Arroyo, retired Brooklyn College professor emeritus and member of Federación Latina para la Educación Culturas Hispano-Americans, asked the crowd to reflect on the promises of the Pledge of Allegiance, and to compare it with the injustices faced by the Latinx community throughout the ages, especially in light of the recent ICE detainments.

“Sadly, on this evening when we remember the promises of the Pledge of Allegiance, that promise of one nation, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all is moving away from us,” Stevens-Arroyo said. “There is no other interpretation possible when we survey the horrors of family separation at the border, children in cages crying themselves to sleep, captive boys and girls dying under the unfeeling watch of border guards, abuelas told that they are not family to their grandchildren, and even refugees written on their wrists, as if they were prisoners in a Nazi concentration camp.”

Stevens-Arroyo referenced the scheduled ICE raids for Sunday, noting that the deportation and detainment initiative is not the result of one man or woman, one regime or one political party, but rather “a nation contaminated by those who opposed liberty and justice for all, only because that pledge includes people of color, people who are different.”

“To their message of hate, let us respond with grace, with truth, with faith, taking confidence in our cause with our path firmly set toward a brighter future, holding high a torch of light to illuminate the way,” Stevens-Arroyo said. “Let us crown our struggle with a new meaning of these powerful words of allegiance: one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.”

Just before the silent vigil, Indivisible Poconos’s Jessica DePete took to the microphone to call for action over simple words, and compassion for fellow human beings.

“We are past the point where thoughts and prayers are enough,” DePete said. “This moment of crisis demands courage and action. However, the human beings being detained by our government also do deserve our thoughts and our prayers and our loves. They are no different than we, we are them. So as light these candles, please join me in sending our heartfelt wishes for their safety and well-being.”

As the attendees stood quietly around the rim of the small lawn in the center of Stroudsburg, candlelight gently illuminating the faces of people from all walks of life, DePete concluded the ceremony by preempting a moment of silence with a version of a Buddhist prayer calling for empathy, understanding and compassion for those in detainment.

“Now, I invite you to bring to my our fellow human beings: the men, the women, the children, the toddlers and the infants who are being detained by our government because they came here seeking refuge from dangers we can’t imagine,” DePete said. “They came here because they share the same desire for safety and wellness for themselves and their loved ones that we do. See them in your mind’s eye, and offer them your love and intentions for their wellness. May you be filled with love and kindness. May you be well. May you be safe. May you feel peace, and may you be happy.”

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